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| Australia conquer ‘final frontier’ with ease NAGPUR, Oct 29: Breaking a 35-year-old jinx, Australia today won a Test series in India, beating a spineless home team by a huge margin of 342 runs in the third Test here to go 2-0 up.........more Australians
are By Rahul Dravid Congratulations to Australia, they really outplayed us in two of the three test matches. They are the deserving winners. They are the side, which adapted to the given conditions in a better way.........more Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Jammu and Kashmir suffered yet another humiliating defeat through the hands of Punjab but this time in under-19 limited (40) overs game played at Dau Devi Lal Stadium, Gurgaon in Haryana yesterday.......more Air Force
School Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Air Force School Jammu celebrated annual-cum-sports day with traditional fervour. Principal of the school Jyoti Chopra presented annual report highlighting the scholastic and..............more |
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Kamal, Sumesh reach senior snooker final Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Defending champion, Kamal Rohmetra and Sumesh Turki have reached the final of the senior snooker in the 14th Jammu district billiards and snooker championship underway at Billiards Hall, M A Stadium, here today..........more Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Young Arjun Kohli, who made it into men’s singles final for the first time, lost to defending champion, Maninder Singh in straight sets in the Jammu district table tennis championship...........more GCW Gandhi
Nagar wins Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Government College for Women (GCW), Gandhi Nagar clinched the annual inter-college football..........more Dushyant
in US Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Bronze medalist in the World Championship and presently general secretary of J&K Wrestling Association........more |
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| We had attitude, but couldn’t execute our plans: Dravid..... |
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Australia conquer ‘final frontier’ with ease NAGPUR, Oct 29: Breaking a 35-year-old jinx, Australia today won a Test series in India, beating a spineless home team by a huge margin of 342 runs in the third Test here to go 2-0 up. For the ruthless world champions the win represents conquering the ‘final frontier’, as they had not won a series in this country since 1969. India had come from behind to win the last series in 2000 with a great win in Kolkata. After setting the hosts an imposing target of 543, the Australians bundled out the home team for an embarrassing 200 as India crashed to their biggest Test defeat by runs with an entire day to spare. It was a bigger thrashing than the 329-run defeat they had suffered at the hands of South Africa in Kolkata during the 1996-97 series. The battery of Australian speedsters exploited the grassy track at the VCA Stadium to devastating effect as they ran through the brittle Indian batting line-up with ease in what turned out to be ridiculously lop-sided encounter. The lanky Jason Gillespie, who had taken five wickets in the first innings, again emerged as the main wrecker with figures of 4-24 as the Indian batsmen surrendered tamely to fold up in just 53.3 overs. Resuming at the overnight score of 202 for three, the visitors rattled up runs at a furious pace through Damien Martyn (97) and Michael Clarke (73) before declaring the innings at 329 for five just a few minutes before the lunch break. Australia, 1-0 up coming into the match following the 217-run win in the series opener at Bangalore and the drawn second Test at Chennai, wrapped up the series ahead of the now inconsequential fourth and final match commencing at Mumbai on November 3. Australia, thus, also clinched a series triumph in India for the first time since Bill Lawry’s team had out-battled Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s home squad in the five-Test series 3-1 between the two countries in three and a half decades ago. The team, without the services of injured captain Ricky Ponting in the first three Test and ably led by his understudy — wicket-keeper Gilchrist, crossed the oft-quoted ‘final frontier’ of former captain Steve Waugh by totally outclassing the clueless and rudderless home team in all parts of the game in this orange city. The series loss was also the first one for the hosts since the 0-2 whitewash by South Africa in 2000. Incidentally, India have not won a Test match at home, even as they have left behind the tag of poor tourists with regular wins overseas of late, since 2002. Today the Indian top order was blown away by a furious burst of fast bowling by the Australian pace trio of Gillespie, Glenn McGrath and Michael Kasprowicz who reduced the hosts to a sorry-reading 37 for 5 before tea after the hosts commenced their run-chase just before the close of the first session. Gillespie, who started the Indian slide towards the ignominious defeat, finished with superb innings figures of four for 24 and match analysis of nine for 80. McGrath and Kasprowicz played the perfect foil by capturing two wickets each respectively. Shane Warne sent back Virender Sehwag, the hosts’ highest scorer, and last man Zaheer Khan to start the celebrations for the visitors. But for a fighting half century by opener Sehwag, who made a 94-ball 58 with eight fours, and the stubborn resistance offered by tailenders Ajit Agarkar (not out 44) and Parthiv Patel (32), India could have been bowled out for their lowest ever Test score at home. Sehwag took the battle to the Australian ranks with his forthright play even as wickets were tumbling like nine pins at the other end, and put on 65 runs in 68 minutes with Patel. The duo’s determined approach helped the team cross 75, the lowest test innings score made by India at home in 1987 against the West Indies at Delhi. The sixth wicket pair also showed in clear measure that there was nothing wrong with the well-grassed wicket, which was still assisting the faster bowlers with some lateral movement and bounce but was not unplayable. The big three of the Indian batting - stand-in captain Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman — could muster only six runs between themselves and proved unequal to the arduous task of batting out five sessions to earn a draw. It was a mixture of some spineless and reckless batting by the much-vaunted Indian top order that led the hosts to their biggest margin of defeat ever. Asked to create Test history the Indian top-order batsmen - barring Sehwag — chickened out and surrendered their wickets meekly against the Australian pace attack. By tea on the penultimate day, India were tottering at 84 for the loss of five wickets with the lone show of defiance being exhibited by the flashing blade of Sehwag. The batsmen who were packed off in short shrift before the tea break were Aakash Chopra (1), Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Mohd Kaif (7), the top-scorer with 55 in India’s first innings tally of 185. Chopra and Dravid were beaten by the pace and movement generated from Gillespie while the other three played reckless shots and got out. (PTI) Scoreboard Australia 1st innings 398 India 1st innings 185 Australia 2nd innings J Langer c Laxman b Kartik 30 M Hayden b Zaheer Khan 9 S Katich lbw b Kartik 99 D Martyn c Patel b Zaheer Khan 97 M Clarke c Kaif b Kumble 73 A Gilchrist not out 3 Extras (b-1, lb-15, w-2) 18 Total (for 5 wickets decl., in 98.1 overs) 329 Fall of wicket: 1-19, 2-99, 3-171, 4-319, 5-329. Bowling: Zaheer Khan 21-5-64-2, Agarkar 21-7-68-0, Kumble 21-1-89-1, Tendulkar 8-1-12-0, Kartik 26-5-74-2, Sehwag 1-0-6-0. India second innings: A Chopra b Gillespie 1 V Sehwag c Clarke b Warne 58 R Dravid b Gillespie 2 S Tendulkar c Martyn b McGrath 2 V V S Laxman c McGrath b Kasprowicz 2 M Kaif c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 7 P Patel c Gilchrist b Gillespie 32 A Agarkar not out 44 A Kumble b Gillespie 2 M Kartik c Gilchrist b McGrath 22 Zaheer Khan c Langer b Warne 25 Extras (lb-2, nb-1) 3 Total (all out in. 53.3 overs) 200 Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-9, 3-20, 4-29, 5-37, 6-102, 7-114, 8-122, 9-148 Bowling: McGrath 16-1-79-2; Gillespie 16-7-24-4; Kasprowicz 7-1-39-2; Warne 14.3-2-56-2. (PTI) |
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Australians are deserving winners By Rahul Dravid Congratulations to Australia, they really outplayed us in two of the three test matches. They are the deserving winners. They are the side, which adapted to the given conditions in a better way. This series defeat is very disappointing for everyone, and no one more than the players know that how badly it hurts to lose a home series. We have had a quite a good record at home over the years and this defeat has spoiled that record but at the same time we are now determined to come out strongly in the last test at Mumbai. There are lessons to be learned from the approach of the Australians towards this series. Since 1996 lot of their core players have been coming regularly to India for ODIs & Test Matches and for stints with the academy. It helped them to acclimatize to the conditions in a better way, better preparation to face spin bowling as shown by most of the Batsmen who scored heavily in this series. Australian batsmen came out with a definite plan made over years of practice and executed it well to dominate our bowling. There was proper planning over the years and the results are coming now. While in the same period. From 1996 till now, few of our players have gone to Australia only twice and most of them only once. The way Australian cricket prepared for this tour is appreciable. We were able to stop them from winning the last time around due to some exceptional performances, which sadly for us did not come through this time. There has been lot of talk about the wicket at Nagpur. No doubt about the fact that this kind of wicket is a rarity in India which suited there bowlers more than ours.The Australian bowlers with Loats of experience behind them exploited the conditions to the best of their advantage. |
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Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Jammu and Kashmir suffered yet another humiliating defeat through the hands of Punjab but this time in under-19 limited (40) overs game played at Dau Devi Lal Stadium, Gurgaon in Haryana yesterday. J&K lost to Punjab by seven wickets. The loss could have been higher had young Ian Dev Singh not played a superb innings of unbeaten 47. According to reports reaching here, earlier, Punjab won the toss and opted to field. Batting first, J&K lost all their wickets at a score of 96, except that of Ian Dev, who came as opener and remained the last man standing in the crease. However, Rohit Bhat extended a helping hand to the opener with his 19 runs crucial contribution. Batting second, Punjab chased the target of 97 runs with seven wickets in hand. Skipper Gourav Gupta was top scorer with 34. From J&K, Ian Dev took one wicket for 12 runs in three overs while skipper, Abid Nabi clinched two for 30 in six overs he bowled. Now, in the next one-dayer, J&K will meet Haryana at Rohtak on November Ist. |
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Air Force School celebrates annual day Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Air Force School Jammu celebrated annual-cum-sports day with traditional fervour. Principal of the school Jyoti Chopra presented annual report highlighting the scholastic and co-curricular achievements of the school. Group Captain, R Shankar, Station Commander, Air Force Station Jammu was chief guest. Mrs Geeta Radha Krishnanan, president Air Force Wives Welfare Association (local), gave away the trophies and certificate to the meritorious students of the school. |
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Kamal, Sumesh reach senior snooker final Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Defending champion, Kamal Rohmetra and Sumesh Turki have reached the final of the senior snooker in the 14th Jammu district billiards and snooker championship underway at Billiards Hall, M A Stadium, here today. In the semi-finals played today, Kamal defeated first time semi-finalist, Ajay Pal Singh 4-1. Winning first frame, Kamal lost the second after Ajay Pal made excellent potting giving his title holder little chance to add score on the board. However, experienced Kamal made a clean sweep in the third frame and later won the remaining two frames too thereby making it a 4-1 victory. The score: 68-38, 45-87, 62-14, 44-28, 45-34. In the second semi-final, Sumesh Turki outplayed fighting Mohit Mahajan to set stage for an interesting final against Kamal. The score: 71-40, 72-29, 39-61, 61-38, 57-38. Earlier, in the quarterfinals, Kamal beat Ishuk Chowdhary in straight frames 61-52, 54-45, 69-35 and Ajay Pal Singh downed Vishal Abrol 51-35, 48-36, 41-50, 18-51, 69-35. |
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Young Arjun loses to
Maninder in men’s TT final Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Young Arjun Kohli, who made it into men’s singles final for the first time, lost to defending champion, Maninder Singh in straight sets in the Jammu district table tennis championship which was organised by the J&K Table Tennis Association at Indoor Complex, MA Stadium, here today. The expected straight set victory in favour of Maninder could not evoke any response in the spectators, who even did not bother to clap as and when a young player was hitting back to the shots of his senior. The score: 11-4, 11-5, 11-7. However, a tenth standard student of JK Public School, Arjun was happy playing against a player like Maninder that too in the men’s singles final. Earlier, Arjun won junior singles final beating Varun Bhalla 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10 to become junior district champion. The junior girls trophy went to Chandpreet Kour, who downed Svera Jamwal 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6. It was after a long gap that Chandpreet was not playing in the women’s final. She was beaten by Mohita Singh in the semi-finals 12-10, 9-11, 11-8. Later, Mohita Singh emerged as new women’s champion beating Svera Jamwal 12-10, 11-7, 4-11, 11-4. The sub-junior boys trophy was clinched by Jayesh Singh, who outplayed Bhavik Jain 5-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-5 and in girls section, Nitani Bakshi defeated Saba 11-6, 11-8, 11-7. In Cadet’s group, again Jayesh emerged winner trouncing Shurya Sharma 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6. The Cadet girls trophy was claimed by Shifali Gupta who beat Shzer 11-5, 11-7, 11-9. Secretary, Jammu Club, Kiran Wattal, who is himself a medalist in weightlifting and now a veteran badminton player, was chief guest in the finals and valedictory function. Before giving away prizes to the winners and runners-up of various age groups, Wattal congratulated the winners and their parents. Wattal had all praise for the table tennis coach, Satish Gupta, who he termed as a dedicated person. General secretary of J&K Table Tennis Association, Ajay Sharma expressed his gratitude to the chief guest for sparing his time for the function. |
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GCW Gandhi Nagar wins inter-college football Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Government College for Women (GCW), Gandhi Nagar clinched the annual inter-college football trophy beating the arch rival in GCW Parade 2-1 in the final played today at University ground, here. The final, which was decided only in tie-breaker, remained goalless in the stipulated time. Later, the extra time could not yield any result forcing the organisers, Department of Physical Education, to decide the winner through tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, Gandhi Nagar girls managed to score two goals as against one by Parade College. From winners, Raspreet and Rita were successful scorers while from Parade College, Amandeep netted the only goal. Football final was officiated by David Masih, Dr Daljeet Singh, R C Vaid and Dr Brij Balowria. Meanwhile, in the inter-college women volleyball, Degree College Poonch defeated New Age Degree College Phinter in straight sets 25-9, 25-14, 25-10. Next matches: GCW Parde to meet Degree College Poonch and GCW Gandhi Nagar will take on Degree College Kathua tomorrow at 11 am onwards. Volleyball matches were officiated by Rattan Chand, R C Sharma, and Rajesh Virdhi. |
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Dushyant in US for clinic course Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 29: Bronze medalist in the World Championship and presently general secretary of J&K Wrestling Association, Dushyant Sharma has left for United States to undergo a type-II clinic course meant for the officials in international competitions. The course will be held during the 2004 Sunkist/ASU international wrestling tournament (men and women) at Tempe, Arizone in United States. After undergoing such an high profile course, Dushyant, who is Deputy Superintendent with J&K Police, will be among a few Indians to have the privilege to officiate the world level wrestling championships. Two other wrestlers who have been selected for the said course were Varinder Singh Malik of Haryana and Ravinder Maan of Delhi. We had attitude, but couldn’t execute our plans: Dravid NAGPUR: India’s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid today said his team had the attitude but could not execute the gameplan which led to the first series defeat in 35 years at home against Australia. "It is probably disappointing with the way we batted but all the guys fought hard and showed the right attitude. Unfortunately we could not execute our skills and plans," Dravid said after the 342-run loss in the third cricket Test at the VCA ground here. Chasing a target of 543, India meekly surrendered to be all out for 200 in the second innings on the penultimate day. Once again, as in the first Test in Bangalore, the lower order outscored the top five batsmen who between them managed only 37 runs. "It was a hard game and we were outplayed by the Aussies," Dravid said. "The conditions here suited them. But probably they adapted to the conditions better." "They have a good team, they have been coming here quite often and that helped them. We obviously need to get better, improve individually," he said. An emotional winning captain Adam Gilchrist maintained the team’s victory, Australia’s first since 1968-69 when Bill Lawry’s side won 3-1, would rank ‘right up there’ among other wins he had featured in but refused to rate it as the best ever. "At the start of the series I told you that we are not going to make it big. It is a wonderful experience, an emotional experience. It is right up there," Gilchrist said after the match. Nevertheless, he acknowledged Steve Waugh’s support back home in the team’s preparation. "Lot of hard work and preparation. All that and our perserverence has paid off," Gilchrist said. "I would like to thank all people back home for supporting us. Steve Waugh, and Shane Watson who was with us till couple of days ago, our wives and families." "The Chennai test could have gone either way but we came here confident of winning." (AGENCIES) Younis and Inzamam put Pakistan in command KARACHI, Oct 29: Younis Khan made a flawless century in his return to international cricket and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq completed 7000 Test runs Friday to put Pakistan in charge of the second Test against Sri Lanka. Inzamam was undefeated on a polished 79 with eight fours and a six as Pakistan ended the second day at 298 for 4. The home team lead’s by 90 runs. Medium fast bowler Abdul Razzaq claimed a career-best 5-35 on the first day to dismiss Sri Lanka for 208. Younis, playing his first Test in 13 months, was caught five overs before stumps off leg-spinner Rangana Herath after making brilliant 124 with 12 boundaries and a six before Riaz Afridi (9) was bowled by Chaminda Vaas in the last over of the day. "I was waiting for the chance (in Test cricket) and today, when I walked in, I aimed to stay long at the wicket and avail this opportunity," Younis said. Pakistan trails the two-match series 1-0 after losing the first Test by a massive 201 runs at Faisalabad last Sunday. Younis completed his sixth Test century when he pulled Dilhara Fernando for two runs to mid-wicket during the last session in an innings that spanned more than five hours and included 215 balls. "It’s my best century out of the six, but I also enjoyed my first one," said Younis, who 107 on debut against Sri Lanka in 1999-2000 at Rawalpindi. Inzamam — veteran of 96 Test matches — became second Pakistan batsman after Javed Miandad (8832) to complete 7000 runs in Test cricket when he reached 66. Inzamam lifted left-arm spinner Rangana Herath over his head for a big six and slammed five powerful boundaries in his 37th Test half century. Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu used seven bowlers, but all struggled to get with the wicket before the tourists claimed two late wickets in the last session. Vaas ended the day with two for 57. Earlier in the morning, a 122-run second wicket stand between opener Imran Farhat and Younis took Pakistan to 136 for two during a two and a half hour session, extended because of Friday prayers in this mainly muslim country. Farhat was trapped LBW by Vaas after sharing a century stand after Yasir Hameed ell during Farveez Maharoof’s second over of the innings. Farhat built his innings with some well timed cover drives and square cuts, and raised his half century with 10 boundaries when he pulled Dilhara Fernando in front of square for four. Younis, who last played against Bangladesh at Multan in 2003, followed Farhat to the fifty-run mark and completed his half century off 65balls, including five boundaries. Pakistan lost opener Hameed in the fourth over of the innings when Maharoof got a thin edge to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara. (AP) Huge profit for PCB from sale of tickets LAHORE, Oct 29: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) earned a whopping Rs 75 million from sale of tickets during the home series against India. The PCB earned Rs 22,820,624 from sale of tickets for first one-dayer, 10,047,127 for second ODI, 6,415,952 for third ODI, 19,829,051 for fourth ODI and 67,512, 155 for fifth ODI. The sale of tickets for the three Tests was Rs 1,719,050 for first Test in Multan, Rs 4,237,825 for second in Lahore and 1,861,125 for third in Rawalpindi. The total gate receipts from the series was 75,330,155 Rupees including a sum of 151,651 pounds sterlings from online sale of tickets. Out of a total of 115,716 salable seats, 95.7% were actually sold and have been accounted for. This figures represents the highest ever income from tickets sales by the PCB, a statement issued by Abbas Zaidi, consultant PR and media/protocol said. The remaining unexplained 4.3% figure represents an average of 991 seats per stadium. These seats spread over enclosures at Rs 1500, 1200 and 800 per seat were allotted to persons who were entitled to free seats in various categories. Zaidi said that 95.7% seats recorded in the computer were sold to the public and fully accounted for and remaining were held back for emergencies or issued as gratis for special categories. He asserted that to discourage VIP culture no complimentary tickets were issued as part of a policy approved by the president and Prime Minister. Thus no complimentary tickets were issued to VIPs who were encouraged to purchase tickets on the market. (UNI) |
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